American flags mark a return from the pandemic shutdown

Special to The Times-Reporter

Friday

May 1, 2020 at 4:00 PM

Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced a plan to allow the gradual lifting of coronavirus quarantine restrictions in Ohio. To mark the occasion, members of the Rotary Club of New Philadelphia are joining with Mayor Joel Day and relaunching the club’s Salute Freedom Project.

This annual celebration of American freedom will begin with the placement of dozens of American flags on light poles in the downtown area and along North Broadway at Tuscora Park.

“This is a great moment for our club and our community,” said JJ Boroski, president of the Rotary Club of New Philadelphia. “Putting the flags up again is a way to signal the start of our return to a more normal way of life and reminds us to value the freedoms we all cherish.”

Helping to launch the project is Mayor Day, a club member.

“The Governor credits Ohioans for helping to ‘flatten the curve’ and has prepared us for the first steps back to normal,” Day said. “The Rotary’s Salute Freedom Project is a great way to show we’re ready to get our community, our state, and our country up and running again, one step at a time.”

This will be the ninth year that the Rotary Club will conduct the Salute Freedom project placing an American flag on a 10-foot metal pole in front of homes and businesses in New Philadelphia. Flags are put up prior to the Memorial Day holiday weekend and remain up through Veterans Day in November. The cost to have the club place a flag is $30 this year.

Restrictions imposed in March and April in response to the Coronavirus pandemic delayed the regular startup of the project. With only a few weeks now until the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the club’s members will go ahead and place a flag at the homes and businesses of all those who subscribed to the project last year. A form will be left at the door with a request for payment of the $30 subscription fee and providing contact information to have the flag removed if it’s not desired this year.

New subscribers are invited to join in the program by ordering a flag to be installed at their home or business. Forms are available from the club’s website: www.newphiladelphiarotary.com or by contacting the club by e-mail at: information@newphiladelphiarotary.com or by visiting the club’s Facebook page.

Proceeds from the project are used to buy high-quality American flags from the Annin Flag Company in Coshocton, and hardware from local retailers.

Any profits are used to help fund the Rotary’s many community service projects.

If there are other questions contact Salute Freedom Project co-chairs Mark Garrison at 330-339-1773 or Tom Police at 330-204-6093.

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